_Guillaume Duchenne

_Guillaume
Duchenne was a French neurologist in
the 1800s. Duchenne believed, like many of the time, in the concept of physiognomy.
Physiognomy today is thought of as a way to access a person’s character from
their facial features, while during Duchenne’s time it was believed that the
human face was directly linked to the soul. Duchenne, however, was under the
belief that it was not the by observing the face, but through expressions alone
that one could understand the soul’s true emotions. To back up and study this
belief, Duchenne wanted to find a way to manipulate facial expresseions to
better understand facial structure and muscles. It was his determination that
paved the way for research on electric stimulation on muscles. With electric
charges applied to the face, Duchenne could manipulate the muscles to show
emotions and photograph them for reference.It
was during this research that two distinct types of smiles were identified. The
Duchenne smile is considered a genuine smile while a non-Duchenne smile refers
to fake or forced smiles. The difference between the smiles can be found in the
muscles manipulated. The genuine smile uses both the zygomatic major, a muscle
that raises the corners of the mouth, and the orbicularis oculi, the muscle
that raises the cheeks and show ‘laugh lines’ around the eyes. A forced smile,
on the other hand, will only use the zygomatic muscle (Ekman, Davidson, & Friesen,
1990). Duchenne documented his
findings including photographs, in his book Mécanisme
de la physionomie humaine (The
Mechanism of Human Physiognomy) in 1862.